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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ORC-PAI |
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ORKNEY ISLANDS , a group of islands, forming a county, off the north coast of Scotland. The islands are separated from the mainland by the Pentland Firth, which is 64 m. wide between Brough Ness in the island of South Ronaldshay and Duncansbay Head in Caithness-shire. The group is commonly estimated to consist of 67 islands, of which 30 are inhabited (though in the case of four of them the population comprises only the light-house attendants), but the number may be increased to as many as go by including rocky iislets more usually counted with the islands of which they probably once formed part. The Orkneys lie between 58 41' and 59 24' N., and 2 22' and 3 26' W., measure 50 M. from N.E. to S.W. and 29 M. from E. to W., and cover 240,476 acres or 375.5 sq. m. Excepting on the west coasts of the larger islands, which present rugged cliff scenery remarkable both for beauty and for colouring, the group lies somewhat low and is of bleak aspect, owing to the absence of trees. The highest hills are found in Hoy. The only other islands containing heights of any importance are Pomona, with Ward Hill (88o ft.), and Wideford (74o ft.) and Rousay. Nearly all of the islands possess lakes, and Loch Harray and Loch Stenness in Pomona attain noteworthy proportions. The rivers are merely streams draining the high land. Excepting on the west fronts of Pomona, Hoy and Rousay, the coast-line of the islands is deeply indented, and the islands themselves are divided from each other by straits generally called sounds or firths, though off the north-east of Hoy the designation Bring Deeps is used, south of Pomona is Scapa Flow and to the south-west of Eday is found the Fall of Warness. The very names of the islands indicate their nature, for the terminal a or ay is the Norse ey, meaning " island," which is scarcely disguised even in the words Pomona and Hoy. The islets are usually styled helms and the isolated rocks skerries. The tidal currents, or races, or roost (as some of them are called locally, from the Icelandic) off many of the isles run with enormous velocity, and whirlpools are of frequent occurrence, and strong enough at times to prove a source of danger to small craft. The charm of the Orkneys does not lie in their ordinary physical features, so much as in beautiful atmospheric effects, extraordinary examples of light and shade, and rich coloration of cliff and sea. Geology.All the islands of this group are built up entirely of Old Red Sandstone. As in the neighbouring mainland of Caithness, these rocks rest upon the metamorphic rocks of the eastern schists, as may be seen on Pomona, where a narrow strip is exposed between Stromness
Climate and Industries.The climate is remarkably temperate and equable for so northerly a latitude. The average temperature for the year is 46 F., for winter 39 F. and for summer 54 3' F. The winter months are January, February and March, the last being the coldest. Spring never begins till April, and it is the middle of June before the heat grows genial. September is frequently the finest month, and at the end of October or beginning of November occurs the peerie (or little) summer, the counterpart of the St Martin's summer of more southerly climes. The average annual rainfall varies from 33.4 in. to 37 in. Fogs occur during summer and early autumn, and furious gales may be expected four or five times in the year, when the crash of the Atlantic waves is audible for 20 M. To tourists one of the fascinations of the islands is their nightless summers." On the longest day the sun rises at 3 o'clock A.M. and sets at 9.25 P.M.; and darkness is unknown, it being possible to read at midnight. Winter, however, is long and depressing. On the shortest day the sun rises at 9.10 A.M. and sets at 3.17 P.M. The soil generally is a sandy loam or a strong but friable clay, and very fertile. Large quantities of seaweed as well as lime and marl are available for manure. Until the middle of the 19th century the methods of agriculture were of a primitive character, but since then they .have been entirely transformed, and Orcadian farming is now not below the average standard of the Scottish lowlands. The crofters' houses have been rebuilt of stone and lime, and are superior to those in most parts of the Highlands. The holdings run fairly small, the average being between 30 and 40 acres. Practically the only grain crops that are cultivated are oats (which greatly predominate) and barley, while the favoured root crops are turnips (much the most extensively grown) and potatoes. Not half of the area has been brought under cultivation, and the acreage under wood is insignificant. The raising of live stock is rigorously pursued. Shorthorns and polled Angus are the commonest breeds of cattle; the sheep are mostly Cheviots and a Cheviot-Leicester cross, but the native sheep are still reared in considerable numbers in Hoy and South Ronaldshay; pigs are also kept on several of the islands, and the horsesas a rule hardy, active and small, though larger than the famous Shetland poniesare very numerous, but mainly employed in connexion with agricultural work. The woollen trade once promised to reach considerable dimensions, but towards the end of the 18th century was superseded by the linen (for which flax came to be largely grown); and when this in turn collapsed before the products of the mills of Dundee, Dunfermline and Glasgow, straw-plaiting was taken up, though only to be killed in due time by the competition of the south. The kelp industry, formerly of at least minor importance, has ceased. Sandstone is quarried on several islands, and distilleries are found in Pomona (near Kirkwall and Stromness
Population and Administration.In 1891 the population numbered 30,453, and in 1901 it was 28,699, or 67 persons to the sq. m. In 1901 there were 70 persons who spoke Gaelic and 'English, but none who spoke Gaelic only. Orkney unites with Shetland to send one member to parliament, and Kirkwall, the county town and the only royal burgh, is one of the Wick district groups of parliamentary burghs. There is a combination poorhouse at Kirkwall, where there are also two hospitals. Orkney forms a sheriffdom with Shetland and Caithness, and a resident sheriff-substitute sits at Kirkwall. The county is under the school-board jurisdiction, but at Kirkwall and Stromness there are public schools giving secondary education. The Inhabited Islands.Premising that they are more or less scattered, and that several lie on the same plane, the following list
wall
earl
earl
wall
hall
Gentleman 's Cave, i m. to the south, was so called from the circumstance that it afforded shelter to five of the leading followers of Prince Charles Edward, who lay here during the winter of 1745-1746. Papa Westray (295) and North Ronaldshay (442) are the most northerly islands of the group. The latter is only reached from Sanday, from which it is separated by a dangerous firth 21 M. wide. The monumental stone with Ogham inscription, which was discovered in the broch of Burrian, must date from the days of the early Christian missionaries.History.The Orkneys were the Orcades of classical writers, and the word is probably derived from the Norse Orkn, seal, and ey, island. The original inhabitants were Picts, evidence of whose occupation still exists in numerous weems or under-ground houses, chambered mounds, barrows or burial mounds, brochs or round towers, and stone circles and standing stones. Such implements as have survived are of the rudest description, and include querns or stone handmills for grinding corn, stone worls and bone combs employed in primitive forms of woollen manufacture, and specimens of simple pottery ware. If, as seems likely, the Dalriadic Scots towards the beginning of the 6th century established a footing in the islands, their success was short-lived, and the Picts regained power and kept it until dispossessed by the Norsemen in the 9th century. In the wake of the Scots incursionists followed the Celtic missionaries about 565. They were companions of St Columba and their efforts to convert the folk to Christianity seem to have impressed the popular imagination, for several islands bear the epithet " Papa " in commemoration of the preachers. Norse pirates having made the islands the headquarters of their buccaneering expeditions indifferently against their own Norway and the coasts and isles of Scotland, Harold Haarfager (" Fair Hair ") subdued the rovers in 875 and both the Orkneys and Shetlands to Norway. They remained under the rule of Norse earls until 1231, when the line of the jarls became extinct. In that year the earldom of Caithness was granted to Magnus, second son of the earl of Angus, whom the king of Norway apparently con-firmed in the title. In 1468 the Orkneys and Shetlands were pledged by Christian I. of Denmark for the payment of the dowry of his daughter Margaret, betrothed to James III. of Scotland, and as the money was never paid, their connexion with the crown of Scotland has been perpetual. In 1471 James bestowed the castle and lands of Ravenscraig in Fife on William, earl of Orkney, in exchange for all his rights to the earldom of Orkney, which, by act of parliament passed on the loth of February of the same year, was annexed to the Scottish crown. In 1564 Lord Robert Stewart, natural son of James V., who had visited Kirkwall twenty-four years before, was made sheriff of the Orkneys and Shetlands, and received possession of the estates of the udallers; in 1581 he was created earl of Orkney by James IV., the charter being ratified ten years later to his son Patrick, but in 1615 the earldom was again annexed to the crown. The islands were the rendezvous of Montrose's expedition in 165o which culminated itt his imprisonment and death. During the Protectorate they were visited by a detachment of Cromwell's troops, who initiated the inhabitants into various industrial arts and new methods of agriculture. In 1707 the islands were granted to the earl of Morton in mortgage, redeemable by the Crown on payment of 30,000, and subject to an annual feu-duty of 500; but in 1766 his estates were sold to Sir Lawrence Dundas, ancestor of the earls of Zetland. In early times both the archbishop of Hamburg and the archbishop of York
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